Читать книгу The Apotheosis - Darrell Lee - Страница 13

During the summer, just a few months shy of my twenty-first birthday, Uncle Robert took me to Nassau to meet the tax attorney. I didn’t even know I had a tax attorney, much less in the Bahamas. But I knew the trust fund left to me by my father had been growing, untouched, with investments and deposits from the company for the past eleven years. I had no idea how important this trip was to be to me later.

It was a small, brick, windowless building, standing alone on a block of a nondescript street in New Province. The only unusual things about it were the five satellite communication antennas on the roof and the thick, metal front door. We walked in and were immediately greeted by Lee Silkcox. Black as ink, almost two-dimensional. Salt-and-pepper hair and beard. His casual dress gave no hint of his wealth. To this day, he’s one of the smartest men I have ever met.

He shook hands with Uncle Robert, and pleasantries were exchanged.

“Perhaps you should find a local bar to kill some time, Robert. I’ll give you a ring when I am finished with Mr. Numen.” With that, Uncle Robert was gone.

“Only a few months away now, Mr. Numen. I am very excited for you. Come with me so we can look at these computer screens together.”

We moved to the back half of the building, through a doorway to a room whose walls were covered with flat panel TVs. All of them, except two with news channels, scrolled stock market information from around the world. Three computers with two monitors each sat on tables against the back wall. Multi-colored charts and graphs were displayed on these. Every couple seconds they would update with real-time information. What they were analyzing I couldn’t tell. We sat together, in plush leather chairs, at a large table in the middle of the room with three computer monitors on it. He pulled up a spreadsheet.

“I am told you are a very intelligent young man. That’s good, it will make my job a lot easier. I don’t suppose you know what a ‘Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich’ is, do you?”

“No, sir.”

“It’s a tax-avoidance technique employed by certain corporations, in this case, The Numen Company, using a combination of Irish and Dutch subsidiary companies to shift profits to low- or no-tax jurisdictions. This financial… technique… involves sending profits first through one Irish company, then to a Dutch company, and finally to a second Irish company headquartered in a tax haven. This technique helps your company—I say ‘your’ because in a few months you will hold the largest portion—to reduce the overall corporate tax rates… significantly.”

“Is that legal?”

“Yes, it is, for now. Your company is grandfathered in and can take advantage of this technique until 2020. After that, we’ll have to get creative for your company’s bottom line to remain unaffected. But don’t worry, there’s always another way.”

“Does Uncle Robert know?”

“Yes. All board members know. But not all are going to know as much as you, once I am finished with you. Your father was very kind to me. Gave me a chance when none of the other white jerk-offs of a businessman would. I can never repay him. But I can try with his only son.”

“When I was little my father brought me here during the summer to fish—”

“I know, he would use the same trips to come and see me. He usually had a large cash shipment to bring me. Not everything can, or should, be done electronically. But we aren’t here to talk about just the company’s money. I introduced you to the Irish-Danish as a simple example of the high-level concept of a financial tool to take advantage of the system in place on an international scale. Today we are really interested in your personal money. Do you know how much money you have?”

“I have a little over $3 million in a trust fund.”

“You have the standard-looking trust fund back in America. True. That’s really for show. That $3 million is a very small portion of what your father left for you. I’ve done very well for you over the past eleven years. It has been pretty easy, though, since the only thing to pay for has been your education. But things are changing. Soon you’ll have a place of your own, a car. You have a girlfriend?”

“I have a couple girls I’m seeing, but you know, it’s casual.”

“Casual or not, they cost money and the older the women, the higher the cost. After you are married, the cost of a girlfriend goes way, way up. Not worth the trouble or expense, if you ask me. As soon as the academia lets up, you’ll be wanting to take a few of them on trips and such. It’s normal.”

“I am missing Rome.”

“The unknown accounts I’m about to show you, even if you knew about them, you couldn’t have found any information. Do you know why you wouldn’t be able to find any information on your soon-to-be-gotten wealth?”

“No.”

“Because it’s all hidden.”

“Where?”

“In shell corporations. Here in Nassau, Panama, The Cayman Islands, Swiss bank accounts… just to name a few.”

“Why?”

“Your father was a very smart man. He began this system when the company was founded. He knew its potential and found every way possible to keep every dime he could. He was looking out for your future before you were even born. And I’ve been here every step of the way. Hell, I even taught him a few things he didn’t know. And that’s really saying something.”

“Can you teach me?” I asked.

“Yes, I can. If you are sure you want to know.”

“I am.”

“People can be funny when it comes to money. I have seen multimillionaires get bent over $500, because it isn’t about the amount, it’s about how they must be more than everybody around them. And you never know how people will take it if they know how much you have. It’s important for you to understand the things I tell you, and what I show you here can’t be shared with anyone. Not Dr. Jones, not your aunt and uncle, not a girlfriend and certainly not a wife, if you ever have one. You want to blend in like a chameleon. I have a safe here that is full of false identifications of all types from many different countries. YOUR identifications. We’ll use them to make the many different accounts you’ll be needing. A chameleon, yes, but you and I know you’re much more. That’s a significant advantage to have in life.”

“I understand.”

“You have no idea how much you remind me of him. I can see that brain of yours working. Just like your dad. Let’s begin. Rule number one: don’t ever send me an electronic message of any kind—phone, fax, email, or text message—that isn’t encrypted. I have software you’ll need to install on your personal computer and smartphone.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you want to continue to keep your wealth and have it grow?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Rule number two: then don’t flaunt it, especially in America. If you buy a big mansion in Beverly Hills with a gold-plated Rolls Royce and throw extravagant parties for people you don’t know, get your picture taken by the paparazzi dating the latest supermodel, hanging out on your new yacht in Saint-Tropez—you’ll get noticed. And you’ll end up with a team of lawyers and a security detail just to go to the grocery store. That behavior is for movie stars and the simple-minded rich. Of the truly wealthy, the people in this world who have real influence, the large majority don’t do that. Get noticed and that will be the beginning of the end of your free money.”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Silkcox.”

“You can call me Lee. We’re going to be talking very often the next few years. Remember, I make my money by making sure you make the most money you can. We have something that is hard to find in the business world: a win-win relationship.”

I couldn’t have been in better hands. He was my mentor of the financial underworld. He opened a whole new universe to me. One that operates beneath the seen world. Wall Street is peanuts compared to the volume of money that’s moved, unseen, by the tax authorities of the “free world” governments. These governments that tax over the purchase or sale of a stick of gum. Somehow, this has become acceptable to billions of people, to just give their money away to these entities.

My father wasn’t a sheep in a herd. Neither am I. And neither is Lee Silkcox. I am proud to say that eventually, after many years, I was able to teach him a thing or two. And that’s really saying something.